Of Books, Universe & Miserable Life!

Okay. Am done with reading two books on philosophy and science, back to back, dealing with inception, existence, purpose and history of life and universe. Phew! If I still sound intoxicated, so you know who to blame. (Not me, of course!). Just raking my way through the hangover which is more like a dizzying experience we suffer from, while standing at the edge of what we humbly term in structural engineering as an overhang.

The blockbuster ‘Sophie’s world’ written two decades ago is highly recommended. In pursuit of simple everyday babble such as ‘who are you?’ and ‘where did the world come from?’, the book leads you through a philosophical trail of three thousand years of history of mankind and civilization. At the end, the author through his masterly fabricated tale, plot and theme, leaves you wondering whether you are living in reality or surviving in a mere realm of reality. The evolution of mankind and civilization and the ever itching human quest and need to discover and explore the secrets of universe and life have been briefly narrated. A cautious approach, if not meek, towards the existence of God is evident throughout and questions of religion and faith are at best left open ended. It will be fair to remark that the author has stated a variety of perspectives without taking any firm positions for or against them.

On the contrary the assertions of our modern day researcher cum scientist Stephen Hawking are rather revolutionary and blasphemous. Relying upon a notoriously evolving M theory, in his work “The Grand Design”  he painstakingly sweats and is hell bent upon proving the creation of universe and life sans God. The complexity of what he proclaims all boils down to the fact that multiverse i.e multiple universes owe their existence to the big bang that occurred some 13.7 billion years ago when ‘something’ was created out of ‘nothing’. Thus all evolution and creation of universe and lifeform is no miracle but a logical conclusion and result of immaculate obeyance of laws of nature. Knowing our present as a reality and a fact, and eliminating various possibilities by virtue of statistical and mathematical probabilities, he argues, history as well as the future of the universe can be predicted. Thus, there are more than one probable histories as are there probable multiple futures. What comprehensively beats all my wits and senses is the sense and assumption that there exist eleven dimensions in the universe including a dimension of time space. Sounds sense less? Who knows !?

As regards the creation of first physical atom, the author claims it to be hydrogen. However, he fumbles and staggers to build a convincing case for the creation of first carbon atom from thereon, which happens to be the basis and essential element of all organic lifeform. The worst part and the bad news is that he still firmly stands by Darwin on my evolution_ when he stubbornly declares that my forefathers existed in the form of baboons and monkeys for centuries tracing back their roots and tails to the first homo sapien that came to breath some two hundred thousand years ago on the cooling planet.

From here I would rather retreat to the safety of being a believer and a monotheist, for it gets increasingly difficult to chew on and swallow bits as indigestible as these.

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A Truth About My Universe……….!

I received an email from a colleague explaining some startling facts and intricacies of the universe, first thing this morning. The emphasis was upon the inperceivably humungous expanse that formulates our universe not to mention the enormous nebulous and material mass of heavenly bodies that remain suspended in vacuum gutted firmly to their place revolving endlessly in elliptical or circular orbits in mind boggling harmony, discipline and co-ordination. Never crossing each other’s path nor interfering in other’s business. If there is a limit, that hardly matters for it is almost meaningless putting a limit or end to a scale that is much beyond the comprehensible capacity and tendency of a human mind.

We are dealing with such a countless and unlimited scale where our earth and even our sun (much much larger in size than our earth) is lost as a tiny speck in a blaze and mass of heavenly bodies scattered across the atmosphere.

The message perpetuated therein was “what is the significance of a human being in such an endless expanse where even my world is entirely lost and struggles to assert its existence?”

If we are dwarfed to such a minuscule proportion whereby our existence becomes questionable and much insignificant, what is the point in carrying all those worries in our heads and squabbling over our mundane contentions?

After a brief consternation, a thought drifted across the bleak layers of my mind transforming gradually into a voice that echoed within the confined corridors.“I am my universe in myself; I am the centre of my own universe” That’s precisely what a philosophical and behaviourial school of thought believes in, not without much reason, I must add. Via any exchange, either I am giving something away or receiving it from the infinite entities surrounding myself, nevertheless, I remain the center and focal point of my own little world. Whether the universe is small or large, it is pointless as long as my problems remain my own just like my blessings are unique and my very own.

In this haphazard world of uneven distribution, the nature has been kind and just about one entity at least. What is the logic and justification behind that, one does not know. God has His strange ways of doing things. Time is the only resource, of which one can think of, that is uniformly distributed amongst the blessed and the condemned souls. Okay. You might again disagree. Our life spans vary, are unique and unknown until we die. Again looking at a lifetime from an evolutionary point of view_generations and generations have eroded over thousands of years since the inception of the mankind. What does a life span of 60, 70 or say 100 years signify amidst that torrent and wiping current of centuries?

Evanescence!

But what is lasting amidst all that momentary flash of life we are exposed to? What makes a difference and counts is, in addition to our deeds, our contribution to the evolution of the humanity and the permanent footprints or undeliable reflections that we leave behind for the following generations to adapt or benefit from_The environment, atmosphere, conditions, resources, morals, values, knowledge, learnings, manners, etiquettes and the material world we pass them on as theirs.

Life goes on and so does the history and evolution. On road to continous exploration and discovery, the man continues to unravel the amazing facts and secrets of universe. However, personally I shall always remain indebted to Newton for unearthing the greatest eternal truth about our universe. What holds everything together and firmly in place despite immense disparity and diversity is the mutual affinity, gravitational pull and bonding. Isn’t that what we quite call as love?

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Of Marriage & Physics…….

Upon insistence of my (much) better half, I am reproducing what I had scribbled on my other blog sometime back. It goes like….

So here goes my omolette. Rolls off the frying pan as sweetly as the effervscent words of praise for my boss or management trip off my tongue on any normal working day. As laced and spicy as my language tends to be on the occassions.

For those of you, who are being unreasonably mean, overwhelmed and overawed by the better of curiousity and inquisitiveness, lemme put your sinister speculations to rest, once and for all. Before anyone goes on to kill the cat, yes…. I continue to be ‘happily’ married and this is just another innocent, helpless, lame and futile effort at being assertive and self assured.

Ages ago, Newton earned laurels for discovering the fact that ‘To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction’. Now those who claim or declare that he was never married are challanged to come up with convincing explaination as what MUST’VE been the intense and abnormal precursor leading to the discovery of such grave universal truth or law of motion having such stern, solemn and dire consequences?

For those who are knowledgable, it is all amiably and undisputedly settled under implicit supreme command without any point to agitate or crib. Any civil disobedience may lead to non civil behaviour so it is better of that way.

Whatever the Newton or physics had to say on the institution of marriage, isn’t it bewildering to know that how an elastic and unending reaction to apparently one innocent, simple, tempting, naive but insane act can attain such unrelenting proportions and magnitude?

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